A driver returned a trailer he had collected from our trailer service provider, I was asked to hook into it and deliver a load. The driver came up to me and stated that the load sensing valve was faulty but a part had been ordered and the trailer was safe to use. there was a massive air leak as the valve was dumping air.
I spoke to the manager and he stated that it was safe to use and the valve had nothing to do with the brakes ■■?
I hooked into the trailer and spent 10 minutes trying to build up the air pressure. The cab computer was warning that the braking characacteristics of the vehicle had changed. This was a red light not amber.
I spoke to the manager about this and he said its ok release the handbrake to build pressure and it will be ok.
I refused to haul the trailer on the grounds that as a driver I beleived the trailer was unfit to be used on a road. The company I work for were desperate to get a load out for delivery I believe they were seriously compromising my safety and other road users just to get this load out.
Could anybody give me advise that I had under the circumstances done the right thing. Is their a legal presedence here and what would VOSA have done
Please help if you can especially any technical or legal guys out there.
The trailer did go out and was used by another driver. A defect had been reported and the company were aware of it.
If ur air pressure is below a certain level the hand brake doesn’t come off anyway - and once the level drops whilst driving the trailer and unit brakes come on and you can have a little bit of heat which can cause a fire - u did the right thing
regards
Steve
Andrewbatt:
I refused to haul the trailer on the grounds that as a driver I beleived the trailer was unfit to be used on a road. The company I work for were desperate to get a load out for delivery I believe they were seriously compromising my safety and other road users just to get this load out.
Could anybody give me advise that I had under the circumstances done the right thing. Is their a legal presedence here and what would VOSA have done
Please help if you can especially any technical or legal guys out there.
You did the right thing, the manager should be ashamed of himself for putting commercial interests higher than road safety when there was clearly a dangerous fault with the trailer.
If it was badly leaking air with the handbrake on but not with it off then it will also be badly leaking air every time you press the brake pedal and (depending on exactly where the leak is) it could be that the trailer brakes were either working well below spec or not at all.
Many thanks folks for your replys. They are really useful. Keep them coming, I would like to say that the air was leaking from the load senser itself. This would suggest to me that the senser was ceased. I did not inspect it myself. As the load sensor detects the weight of the load on the vehicle and alters the suspension to apply the correct braking forces along all the road wheels am I correct in thinking that this would be an imediate VOSA prohibition Order.
There is also the matter of the air leak which in itself would warrant a Prohibition order.
Andrewbatt:
am I correct in thinking that this would be an imediate VOSA prohibition Order.
If you had been stopped then from what you describe there is no doubt in my mind that you would have been served an immediate prohibition order.
You might have got away with no more than that if your employer has a good track record of compliance and you manage to convince them that it was fine at the start of your journey. On the other hand if your employer has had other issues in the recent past or the driver was daft enough to tell them it was known about at the start of the journey then it could lead to them coming to visit your employer to have a very thorough check of all your maintenance and defect records.
An air leak at the LSV would result in a fail at MOT therefore quite rightly the trailer should not be used. The annual MOT is viewed as a less stringent check of a vehicle when compared to a PMI and that’s how VOSA view it. Stand by your guns on this VOSA got your back
